Monthly Archives: June 2016

Freight has picked up further in the last week. Many carriers sat out Roadcheck week, affecting volume. For those who didn’t, inspections may have slowed a significant number down, affecting capacity overall through the week. The result was greater demand, reflected in better rates on high-volume lanes.

The seasonal shift in reefer freight volumes from East to West continued, with harvests way down in Florida. Almost all the lanes out of the state lost traction last week.

For dry vans, retail freight is driving rates up for loads heading into the Northeast. Prices are still strong in Los Angeles, but the gains in “headhaul” rates also led to falling prices on “backhaul” lanes.

So far this year there have been nearly 40 large-scale thefts from avocado orchards on the North Island with as much as 350 avocados being stolen each time.

Avocados are currently selling between $4-6 (£2-3) across New Zealand following a poor harvest in 2015.

Exacerbating the problem was an additional 96,000 households who started buying the fruit last year.

New Zealand Avocado Market Manager, Bevan Jelley, told Stuff.nz: “We have reports of people driving utes [utility vehicles] into orchards and filling up the entire back tray. Growers are finding blankets and duvets in their orchards with piles of avocados in them that thieves have picked before being interrupted.

“There’s certainly a large scale theft going on and large numbers of it going on.”
Police Sergeant Aaron Fraser of Waihi said there have been “spates” of avocado thefts during his career but nothing on the scale of the current criminal activity.

As the stolen avocados are normally raked instead of picked, they are likely to be sold with stalks of 3-4cm.

He told the Guardian: “These stolen avocados can carry risks.They are unripe, some have been sprayed recently and they may still carry toxins on the skin.

“But with the prices so high at the moment, the potential for profit is a strong inducement for certain individuals.”